CARMEL (6-08-2007) -  Lowell ended the 59-inning scoreless streak of Elkhart Memorial's Nicole Bachman in a 3-2 semifinal win at the Penn Regional.  Then they ended a 31-inning scoreless streak of Adas' Angela Gillis in the Penn Regional title game.  Very impressive.  But the bar is set a little higher this weekend.

The Devils now play 4A No. 1 Hamilton Southeastern (29-0) Friday night.  Southeastern is led by senior left-handed pitcher Morgan Melloh (25-0), who has four perfect games, six no-hitters and 18 shutouts this season against an elite 4A schedule.  Before beating defeating 4A No. 8 Center Grove (25-5) and 4A No. 3 Avon (27-4) for the regional title Saturday, Melloh has an official 384 strikeouts and 11 walks in 170 innings and an ERA of 0.16.  In short, no one has hit her all season.

Lowell needs to take special measures to confront the state's most dominant pitcher.  First of all, the Devils have to realize they can't just treat Melloh like any other pitcher.  They have to go out and find a left-handed pitcher, perhaps a graduate of a local school, who can pitch batting practice to them.  Melloh reportedly has two rise balls, one that slides up and another that jumps up, among her half dozen pitches.  But that's for the right-handed hitters to be concerned with.  Lowell has five left-handed hitters who have played three night games all season, and now they will face the state's premier southpaw in a late night playoff game.

Lowell's lefties will be reduced to bunting and slapping, because making full contact can be tough when you've faced maybe one left-handed pitcher (Highland's Beth Haley) all season.  When you consider that two-thirds of all batters that have faced Melloh this year (384 of 573) have struck out, swinging from the heels clearly isn't working, so Lowell's slappers may actually have a better chance than the truckload of girls Melloh has already turned around.

The full week to prepare is a major, major plus for Lowell.  You need a batting game plan and you have to commit to it.  If Lowell simply considers Melloh just another pitcher they will be just another victim.  In the post season, the Hamilton county left-hander has allowed 11 hits and one walk in 35 innings.  She has 73 strikeouts and has given up a grand total of one run.  This isn't breaking news either.  In four years, Melloh is 74-13 with 1,178 strikeouts in 611 innings.  She has allowed 33 earned runs in four years and only four this season.

Lowell was highly impatient at the plate last week.  They scored three earned runs in 17 innings and they should have plated at least 10.  Memorial's Nicole Bachman didn't throw many strikes in her 3-2 loss to Lowell because Lowell batters jumped at outside pitches.  Melloh won't bother with the outside corner as much as she'll challenge Devil batters high or low and dare the them to swing.  On the other side of the field, I think Lowell may want to switch pitchers on the Royals, who are coming off games with Center Grove and Avon where the southeastern Hamilton County girls have seen hard throwers similar to Red Devil right-hander Alyssa Reed (15-2, 1.34 ERA).  Lowell junior Kaitlyn Bolanowski (14-4, 2.04 ERA), a control pitcher with only 21 walks all season, needs to be ready Friday because a change of pace may be in order.

Melloh (.392) has six homers and 32 RBIs and junior Brett Williams (41-96, .427) has 31 RBIs.  Southeastern isn't a great hitting team so the Devils can stay in the game if they continue to play well defensively as they have throughout the playoffs.  But Lowell has to consider lineup juggling.  I know you want to reward the players who have gotten you to the finals, but I would not start five left-handed hitters against the state's best left-handed pitcher.  I also might revisit the batting order Lowell used early in the season with right-handed hitter Kelly Johnson (37-97, .381, 13 stolen bases) batting second and catcher Katherine Allert (27-87, .310, 3 HRs, 23 RBIs) batting third.

Elkhart Memorial clearly pitched around Johnson and Allert.  Second baseman Jacki Fletcher (35-102, .343), first baseman Michelle Johnson (36-106, .340), DH Kristina Kuzma (30-100, .300) outfielder Lauren Wells (33-79, .418) and center fielder Becca Nida (38-93, .409), all lefty batters, are the key to this game.  It's asking a lot to ask them to hit Melloh, who has allowed 43 base hits al season.  Judgements will probably have to be made in practice as to which ones of the 'southpaw 5' should be in what position in the order.  Lowell is truly built to face right-handed pitching.

If you dig down deep enough, there are a few similarities between Lowell's game with Hamilton Southeastern Friday night and Lowell's 28-27 win over three-time defending Indiana state football champion Roncalli in the Class 4A state football championship game in 2005.  Roncalli was heavily favored and virtually at home just like Southeastern is.  Carmel is 20 minutes from Southeastern.  Roncalli was little more than 20 minutes from the RCA Dome.  Lowell softball now, like Lowell football then, had never played a game in the Indianapolis area.  Lowell softballl now, like the 2005 football team, had come from behind to win the two previous playoff games.

At the regional, both the 2005 football team and the 2007 softball team beat an Elkhart County school (there are only 9 of them) in a game played in Elkhart County.  To reach the finals, the 2005 boys beat Fort Wayne South.  The 2007 girls beat South Bend Adams.  The boys beat Fort Wayne South on a three point kick from sophomore David Lang.  The girls beat South Bend Adams on three-base hit by sophomore Katherine Allert.

One advantage to playing the late game is if the weather is an issue, as it was last week at Penn with temperatures in the upper 80s, it will be a bit cooler.  Also, the IHSAA doesn't relate to the fact that 6:30 p.m., EDT is 5:30 p.m. in Lake County, which they don't seem to grasp is three hours away from the metro Indianapolis area on the big, yellow bus.  It will be a bit of a push for people from Andrean to get to Indianapolis by 5:30 on a school and work day.  Everybody from Lowell who wants to get to Carmel can get there by 7:30 p.m., Lake County time.

Southeastern is going to have to sit around all day Friday waiting for 8:30 p.m.  Lowell will be busy traveling and I'd rather be traveling than sitting.  There are several disadvantages to playing at 8:30 p.m., EDT.  One is the first game, which can easily run long in the state tournament.  Lowell and Southeastern may not be playing until 9 or 10 p.m.  If there is a rain delay (a chance of rain is in the forecast for Friday), that starting time might end up being 10:30 or 11:30 p.m., EDT.  That has happened.  Players are not accustomed to playing that late at night and tend to be less effective.  Umpires then tend to want to move the games along, and though they would certainly deny it, anything close to the plate becomes a strike.  Also, the Cherry Tree Complex, unless there have been recent improvements, is not an especially well-lit field. You want to face a hard thrower at high noon or in the mid-afternoon heat.  Not late in the cool of the evening.

McCutcheon gets the 6:30 p.m., EDT game against Castle in a matchup of two of the state traditional power teams.  McCutcheon, which lost the 2005 state title game to Martinsville, was the champion of the 16-team Twin Lakes Invitational and they lost 1-0 in 10 innings to Southeastern.  The Mavericks average five runs a game and that's usually enough for right-handed sophomore Kelci Reed (16-1) and left-handed junior Tori Collins (12-5).  Collins was a first baseman on the 2005 team that beat Lake Central and lost to Martinsville two years ago.

Castle scored a first-inning run and beat McCutcheon 1-0 in Evansville on March 31 in what had to be one of the most boring games of the season for either team.  Castle lost 4-1 to Lake Central early, but they defeated host Floyd Central (27-2) to reach the regional semifinals and then got a two run homer from Amanda Pravdica to beat Mooresville 5-4 for the regional title last week.

I speak a lot here of playing a 'state finals schedule'.  McCutcheon has maximized that effort.  Of the other three teams in the 4A state semifinals, McCutcheon has already faced all of them.  They can't be surprised by anything here and that has to be very comforting this week.  I think McCutcheon will even the score with Castle in the semifinals, go sit in the stands and watch Lowell try to upset Southeastern.

You don't have to be a son of Einstein to guess that the Southeastern-Lowell game may be scoreless for awhile.  Lowell has got to rattle Melloh, and that means make her field the ball, preferably on the third base side.  Only four seniors really play for Southeastern, but it's hard to rattle the defense when Melloh strikes out every other batter.  I think this is the most intriguing match of the eight games to be played Friday.  Lowell has been shut out only twice in 36 games and all-stater Kelly Johnson did not play in one of them, a 1-0 loss to Wheeler (25-4).

Southeastern has shut out the opposition 18 times and they will be the home team in this game.  If Lowell can score in the first inning, it would erase any doubts they might have about being able to win this game.  That's why I'd move Johnson and Allert up in the batting order.  This matchup may also come down to how badly Lowell wants to win.  Lowell's left handed hitters have to get up on the plate and dare Melloh to come inside.  The Devils also have to stand in there and get hit with a pitch if that's what it takes.  If Lowell does not score in the first couple of innings, it's going to be a tough night.  Melloh does not sound like a pitcher you catch up to as the game goes along.  The Devils are trying to beat an unbeatable foe.

But after that football game a couple of years ago, I would never say they couldn't do it.

4A No. 1 Hamilton Southeastern (29-0)
Enrollment: 2,263 -    Fishers, Indiana
3-20 (W) 9-0 (Indianapolis) North Central
3-26 (W) 5-1 Lebanon
3-27 (W) 4-0 Avon (27-4)
4-9  (W) 10-0  (Indianapolis) Pike
4-10 (W) 9-0 Zionsville
4-13 (W) 5-0 (Fortville) Mt. Vernon  (20-6)
4-17 (W) 6-0 (Lafayette) Jefferson
4-20 (W) 7-0 Brownsburg
4-21 (W) 7-0 Whiteland
4-21 (W) 12-2 (FW) Snider (25-6)
4-23 (W) 8-3 Lawrence North
4-24 (W) 7-0 Westfield
4-28 (W) 11-1 Southwood
4-28 (W) 2-0  (FW) Snider (25-6)

5-1 (W) 8-0 Noblesville (18-9)
5-2 (W) 3-2 New Palestine
5-4 (W) 6-0 Fishers
5-5 (W) 7-0 (FW) Northrop
5-7 (W) 4-3 Carmel
5-10 (W) 6-0 (West Lafayette) Harrison (20-10)
5-11 (W) 1-0 Anderson-Highland
5-16 (W) 2-1 McCutcheon (29-6)
5-17 (W) 11-0 Ben Davis
5-18 (W) 16-0  Hamilton Heights

4A Fishers Sectional
5-22 (W) 9-0  Fishers
5-24 (W) 6-0 Carmel
5-25 (W) 3-0 Fishers

4A Center Grove Regional
6-2 (W) 3-1 Avon (27-4)
6-2 (W) 4-0 Center Grove  (25-4)


4A No. 9  LOWELL (30-6)
23-7 in 2006 --  coach Pete Iussig...LAC games in CAPS
3-22  (W) 9-3 Kankakee Valley  (10-20)
3-29  (L)  4-8 Chesterton (20-6)
3-31 (W) 5-0 at Valparaiso (7-19)
4-2    (L) 2-4 at Portage (23-7)
4-3   (W) 2-0 at HIGHLAND (17-13)
4-5    (W) 2-1 (8 innings) ANDREAN  (27-5)
4-10 (cold) BISHOP NOLL (9-19)
4-12 (W) 8-2 at HOBART (17-11)
4-14 (W)  6-4 (9 innings) at Crown Point (16-13)
4-16 (L) 2-3 at MUNSTER (24-7)
4-18 (W) 6-1 Hanover Central (20-10)
4-19 (W) 12-5 GRIFFITH  (16-15)
4-24 (W) 10-0 (5 innings) at KANKAKEE VALLEY (4-8)
4-27 (W) 10-0 (5 innings) Boone Grove (15-12)
4-28 (W) 9-1 at Pioneer  (14-14)
4-28 (W) 9-2 West Lafayette (6-22)
4-30 (W) 2-1 HIGHLAND (17-13)
5-1 (W) 4-0 at ANDREAN (27-5)
5-3  (W) 1-0 BISHOP NOLL  (9-19)

Twin Lakes Invitational  (in Monticello)
5-4 (W) 11-3 Frontier (19-9)
5-5 (W) 9-3 Twin Lakes (18-8)
5-5 (W) 14-0 Maconaquah (14-14)
5-5 (W) 5-4 (8 innings) Munster (24-7)
5-5 (L) 0-2 McCutcheon (29-6) title

5-7 (W) 3-0 Merrillville (3-22)
5-8 (L) 1-6 HOBART (17-11)
5-9 (L) 0-1(L) Wheeler  (25-4)
5-10 (W) 2-1 MUNSTER (24-7)
5-14 (W) 12-2 MORTON  (10-15)
5-15 (W) 5-2 at GRIFFITH (16-15)
5-16 (W) 3-2 Lake Central (21-6)

Lake Central (4A) Sectional
5-21-7 (W) 10-0 East Chicago (6-16)
5-23  (W) 6-1 Highland (17-11)
5-25   (W) 10-1 Munster (24-7)

Penn (4A) Regional
6-2 (W) 3-2 (10 innings) Elkhart Memorial (23-8)
6-2 (W) 3-2 (SB) Riley (21-10)

(4A) State Finals
6-9 (Fri) vs. Hamilton Southeastern (29-0) 6:30 EDT at Cherry Tree Complex - Carmel
6-9 (Sat) vs. Castle (29-6) or McCutcheon (29-6) 6:30 p.m. EDT at Ben Davis - Indianapolis

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